Twenty-two years later , she has a name .

The little girl known only as `` Baby Hope , '' whose abused and decomposed body was found in an ice chest by the side of a New York roadway in 1991 , is 4-year-old Anjelica Castillo , New York police announced Saturday .

Police also announced the arrest of the man they say killed Anjelica and dumped her body along the Henry Hudson Parkway . The man , Conrado Juarez , 52 , is the girl 's cousin . He has been charged with murder .

Detectives from the New York Police Department 's Cold Case Apprehension Squad never stopped searching for answers in the case . Each year , on the anniversary of the July 23 , 1991 , discovery of her body , they would canvass nearby neighborhoods , handing out fliers and asking people for information .

Who was the girl ? Who was her family ? Who killed her ?

It was an anonymous tip called in after the latest canvass in July that helped crack the case , Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said . It led detectives to Anjelica 's sister , now an adult ; from there , they identified the woman believed to be the girl 's mother , he said .

`` That individual 's actions were the catalyst for this most recent lead , '' Kelly said , referring to Juarez 's arrest . He is Anjelica 's cousin on her father 's side .

Police arrested Juarez after questioning him near the Manhattan restaurant where he worked as a dishwasher , Kelly said . He was expressionless as police led him in handcuffs past reporters .

Juarez admitted to the crime Saturday morning , Kelly said .

`` Today , NYPD investigators have given young Anjelica her due justice , '' said Chief of Detectives Phil Pulaski .

Construction workers found the body of Anjelica -- who was never reported missing -- bound and in a garbage bag , hidden under some soda cans inside a blue and white cooler . She had been smothered and sexually molested , and her body was so badly decomposed that several sketches were made to suggest what she looked like .

Two years after she was found , the girl was laid to rest in a donated plot , buried in a white dress bought by a detective 's wife , with a tombstone paid for by detectives . `` Because we care '' is the inscription at the bottom of the tombstone , Pulaski said .

Juarez , who was 30 at the time of the crime , said he went to an apartment in Queens shared by seven of his relatives and saw Anjelica in the hallway , Kelly said . Juarez told police he smothered her with a pillow while raping her .

When the girl went motionless , Juarez told police , he summoned his sister from another room . It was the sister who told Juarez to get rid of the body and who provided the cooler , Kelly said . He then `` folded the girl in half , '' tied her , placed her in a garbage bag inside the cooler and placed soda cans on top of her body , said New York Assistant District Attorney Melissa Mourges during Juaraez 's arraignment Saturday night .

Juarez and his sister hailed a cab to Manhattan , dropped the cooler off in a wooded area near the parkway , and then went their separate ways , authorities said .

The sister , Balvena Juarez Ramirez , is deceased , Kelly said .

Retired Det. Jerry Giorgio , who worked on the case from the start , said he was `` elated '' at news of the arrest .

`` You know the expression , ` I 'm on cloud nine ' ? Well , that 's where I am right now , '' Giorgio told reporters .

Giorgio told CNN the killer 's identity was out of the blue . He said he was certain the killer was Anjelica 's mother , father , or both .

Changes in forensic science also helped propel the investigation , Kelly said . The girl 's body was exhumed in 2006 , and a DNA profile was built in 2011 . Earlier this month the office of the chief medical examiner made a DNA match between the girl and her mother .

From there , investigators constructed a family tree , and the trail led them to Juarez , Kelly said .

Kelly praised the `` phenomenal persistence '' of the detectives who originally worked on the case and those now working with the cold case squad . `` They were unrelenting , '' he said .

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Juarez , the girl 's cousin , is charged with murder

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He admitted to the crime Saturday morning , police say

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A tipster led police to make the arrest , police say